3 Steps to Creating an Effective Blog Content Calendar

If you’re one of the internet-savvy business owners who currently take advantage of a blogging strategy to get your company noticed online, take a moment ask yourself what you’re going to be writing about next week.

If everything that makes up your blog content strategy comes together at last minute, you might want to think about approaching the concept from a more organized stance. Research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute found that marketers who have a well-documented content strategy to work off generally:

  • Have a more effective outreach strategy
  • Struggle less with the challenge of content marketing
  • Can justify higher budgets for content marketing
  • Consider themselves to be more effective at business blogging

Developing a calendar for blog content can assist your organization in evolving. If you determine the topics that you’d like to cover in advance, you’ll have a better idea of how to map your marketing metrics, goals and your overall strategy. Here’s how to get started on making that calendar.

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1. Research your audience

If your strategy so far has been to target general publications wherever possible, then you’re probably not doing any favors to your prospects or yourself. Highly targeted content is more noticeable, engaging readers through social media and keyword searches when buyers begin to develop awareness of their own issues.

Whenever you want to ensure you’re publishing the right type of content, from YouTube videos to blogs packed full of compelling visuals, you need to ensure that your brand has a solid understanding of the buyers they’re hoping to appeal to. Know your target market’s demographics and characteristics, and try to develop knowledge of who they are as individuals, the organizations they work for and what their needs and motivations may be.

2. Research your Topic

Once upon a time, keyword use was much different than it is today. The goal of keyword and topic research is to get a better understanding of how your prospects think, and the way that they perceive your industry. You’re essentially searching for an insight into how they are most likely to describe their problems in the awareness stage of their buying journey.

In addition to using traditional tools to grade your keywords, remember that you can derive incredibly valuable information from various sources, including social media networks like twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr.

3. Consider a Calendar Creation Tool

Some marketers prefer to use Google calendar tools or spreadsheets to collaborate over content calendars. Others feel more comfortable using a highly structured approach which requires the use of project management software. At the end of the day, the right content calendar for your content team will be the one that you can use to collaborate on consistently. If you have trouble making the choice, ask yourself what kind of things you will have to keep in mind to make life easier for you, and your colleagues.

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Worth the Stress?

Creating a calendar for content may seem like something of an overwhelming task, but the benefits can be significant. Although planning your content on a more efficient basis is only one component of creating a well-balanced content strategy, it can make a serious difference when it comes to team organization and making progress towards business success.